July 6, 2003

IHV TO TEST TOSHIBA CHIP FOR PERSONALIZED HIV THERAPIES

BALTIMORE AND TOKYO—Toshiba Corporation and the Institute of Human Virology (IHV), a center of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, announced a collaborative project directed at optimizing personal medication regimes for people who are HIV positive.

The project is supported and developed by the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED) and Mitsui Global Strategic Studies Institute (MGSSI).

Japanese scientific delegation at IHV, June 26, 2003

David Oldach (far left) will be the principle researcher in the collaboration.

To Dr. Oldach’s left are Koji Hashimoto, Toshiba, inventor of electrochemical DNA Chip method; Larry Mahan, Director, DBED Biosciences and Advanced Technologies Investment Group; IHV Director Robert Gallo; Nobuhiro Gemma, Toshiba, DNA Chip project leader; and Kiichi Adachi and Mitsuihiko Ohi of Mitsui.

Recent advances in AIDS management have resulted in medication regimes based on combinations or “cocktails” of different antiretroviral drugs that can reduce the virus to almost undetectable levels. The potential of the project at IHV is to give each patient an efficient, tailor-made therapy of the different regimes.
One area of research at IHV is pharmacogenomics, or simply, the way in which an individual’s genetic inheritance affects responses to drugs. Much more effective treatments are possible through tailor-made medicine for individuals, according to IHV Director Robert C. Gallo, co-discoverer of HIV. “We find this project exciting, for it will permit us to rapidly translate basic science insights, regarding drug metabolism and toxicity and their impact on HIV therapy, into improved patient care,” said Gallo.

Toshiba has emerged as an important contributor to the field of pharmagenomics through development of its electrochemical DNA chip that can analyze and type common DNA sequence variations among individuals that significantly advance abilities to treat disease. Most DNA chips available are based on fluorescence detection technology with rather large, technical equipment.

In contrast, Toshiba’s system offers simple, reliable electrochemical detection that is economical and in a smaller package, compatible with IT systems.

The new chip already has been applied to treatment of hepatitis C in Japan, and provides a fast and efficient means of identifying patients who will respond to treatment with interferon.

David Oldach, an IHV clinician and expert on hepatitis, is the principal investigator who will lead the project. The IHV coordinates disciplines of basic research, epidemiology and clinical research toward accelerating the discovery of diagnostics and therapeutics for a wide range of chronic and deadly viral and immune disorders—particularly HIV, the cause of AIDS. The IHV and Toshiba have collaborated on determining the best approach toward achieving personalized medicine for HIV infectious disease, and decided on gene analysis relating to the effects and side effects of anti-HIV drugs.

Gallo said of the potential impact of the new research program, "Even in the best of scenarios, more than 50 percent of HIV patients currently fail therapy within the first two years. Therefore, bringing scientific advances from bench to bedside—a founding principle of the IHV—and, to the extent that we can recognize biological causes for this and then circumvent them, this new project could become a major contribution to AIDS medicine globally."

Nobuhiro Gemma, Group Manager of Toshiba’s DNA Chip Project Group, said, “We are delighted to be working with Dr. Gallo, one of the world’s most respected researchers in virology, and with one of the leading centers for research into viral and immune disorders. AIDS is a worldwide scourge, and we hope that our work with IHV will produce more efficient and more effective medication regimes that can be brought into play everywhere where HIV must be suppressed and defeated.”

In the collaboration, patient responses to antiretroviral therapy will be analyzed in relation to the host genetic status gene factors, such as metabolic enzyme SNPs, that may influence toxicity and efficacy of the drugs. The results will be applied to the study of HAART, highly active antiretrovirus therapy based on Nucleoside/Nucleotide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs), Nonnucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRTIs) and Protease Inhibitors (PIs).

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Toshiba Corporation is a leader in information and communications systems, electronic components, consumer products and power systems. The IHV mission is to create and develop a world-class center of excellence focusing on chronic viral diseases, most notably HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and virally-linked cancers100% subsidiary of Mitsui & Co., Ltd. MGSSI serves as the “brain” or knowledge) resource center of the vast Mitsui organization, providing strategic information and consultation services to help plan and coordinate Mitsui’s global business activities, and to determine new business directions. UMBI centers are the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology in Rockville; Center for Biosystems Research in College Park; and Center of Marine Biotechnology, Medical Biotechnology Center, and IHV in Baltimore